(The Center Square) – Western North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene more than a year ago remains in peril, a heightened tension created by Congress shutting down the government.
Essential disaster funding from FEMA is being received, and long-term recovery money is facing a delay. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., says the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund balance is down to $1.4 billion with $22.5 billion appropriated in a continuing resolution approved by the House of Representatives and filibuster blocked in the Senate.
“This is a simple continuing resolution to spend at the level we were spending yesterday,” Tillis said on the chamber floor last week. “There’s nothing more to it. There’s money in here to help with disaster relief, but there’s nothing more. This shutdown is hurting people in North Carolina.”
The storm killed 108 in North Carolina, 237 in the South, and caused estimated damage between $60 billion and $80 billion in the state. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26, 2024.
It was expected to come north to the Appalachian Mountains; however, the rainfall total from its dissipation there exceeded all forecasts. Some places got more than 30 inches, most were at 24 inches or more. Due to terrain, water often rushed before it pooled and flooded – very unlike the flooding from hurricanes that happens in the coastal plains.
Interstate 40, from Wilmington at the Atlantic Ocean through eight states to within about 100 miles of the Pacific Ocean at Barstow, Calif., still has a 20-mile stretch across the border of North Carolina and Tennessee that remains reduced to one lane in each direction. Damage or destruction impacted more than 20,000 farms; 800,000 acres of timber; 5,000 miles of roads; 848 bridges; and 163 water systems.
“When I was in western North Carolina,” Tillis said, “I heard someone say that the community I was in was back on its feet. But for every community back on its feet, there are still several communities that are on their knees or flat on their backs. In fact, there are some communities that we wonder whether or not they ever will come back.”
To put the account balance in context, a month ago the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved $7.5 billion from the major disasters account. The 2024 calendar year included 90 whereas the last 30 years have averaged 55.
“We’ve had 40 major disaster declarations in 22 states,” Tillis said of 2025. “FEMA simply doesn’t have the funding needed to respond to a major disaster.”
And that’s just the front-facing element of FEMA. Behind the scenes, staffing levels are impacted by workforce reductions. The Small Business Administration, for example, furloughed more than 20% of staff.
Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30. Wildfires are burning in Washington, California and Hawaii. And earlier events this year were in Wisconsin, Montana and North Dakota.
